Ecclesiastes 9:1

I have drawn all these things through my heart, so that I might carefully understand. There are just men as well as wise men, and their works are in the hand of God. And yet a man does not know so much as whether he is worthy of love or of hatred.

Catholic Public Domain Version

In The King James Version

For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.

In Context

2But all things in the future remain uncertain, because all things happen equally to the just and to the impious, to the good and to the bad, to the pure and to the impure, to those who offer sacrifices and to those who despise sacrifices. As the good are, so also are sinners. As those who commit perjury are, so also are those who swear to the truth.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 9

Cross References

Deuteronomy 33:3He loved the people; all the holy ones are in his hand. And those who approach his feet shall receive from his doctrine.

2 Samuel 15:25And the king said to Zadok: “Carry back the ark of God into the city. If I shall find grace in the sight of the Lord, he will lead me back. And he will show it to me in his tabernacle.

Job 12:10In his hand is the soul of all the living and the spirit of all the flesh of mankind.

Psalms 37:5For my iniquities have walked over my head, and they have been like a heavy burden weighing upon me.

Psalms 73:11Why do you turn your hand away, even your right hand, from the midst of your sinews, until the end?

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 9:1

Solomon, in this chapter, for a further proof of the vanity of this world, gives us four observations which he had made upon a survey of the state of the children of men in it:—I. He observed that commonly as to outward things, good and bad men fare much alike, ver. 1-3 . II. That death puts a final period to all our employments and enjoyments in this world ( ver. 4-6 ), whence he infers that it is our wisdom to enjoy the comforts of life and mind the business of life, while it lasts, ver. 7-10 . III. That God's… Read the whole commentary →

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